senate votes to give $57.9 BILLION to make amerika a bigger better police state!!!! Original Article Senate OKs more money for FBI, slices aid to local officers Jim Abrams Associated Press Nov. 17, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - The FBI and other federal crime-fighting agencies came out well in a $57.9 billion spending bill the Senate passed Wednesday, but funds for state and local law enforcement were cut. The 94-5 Senate vote sent the bill, which covers Justice, Commerce, State Department and science agency programs, to President Bush for his signature. House and Senate negotiators, meanwhile, were wrapping up work on a $140 billion spending bill for Transportation, Treasury and Housing programs after the Senate agreed to remove a provision that would have eased restrictions on agriculture trade to Cuba. "They just caved in to the president's demands, and the American farmers will pay the price," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who has opposed tightening trade sanctions on Fidel Castro's government. The Justice-Commerce bill for fiscal 2006 that began Oct. 1 would provide $5.8 billion for the FBI, $1.7 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration and $924 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, all up from fiscal 2005. But the $2.7 billion in aid for state and local law enforcement was down $300 million from last year. Edward Byrne Justice Assistance grants were down from $606 million to $416 million. Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, a favorite Clinton administration program, got $478 million, down from $598 million, with no money for new hiring. "This is a big victory for drug dealers," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. The Transportation-Treasury bill, which calls for about $1.3 billion for Amtrak, was delayed last week over provisions in the House and Senate bills that would rescind Treasury Department rules making it more difficult to export food products to Cuba. House negotiators, seeking to avoid what would be the first veto of the Bush presidency, resolved to eliminate the provision, but the Senate initially insisted that it stay in the bill. The Justice-Commerce bill is the seventh spending bill Congress has sent to Bush as it rushes to finish domestic budgets by Thanksgiving. Congress must act on 11 spending bills that determine funding for about one-third of the federal budget. Stopgap funding expires Friday, and the House is expected to pass a second temporary funding bill today to keep open agencies whose budgets have not passed. That measure would extend through Dec. 17. Republican leaders met Wednesday to discuss the fate of the Pentagon spending bill. In the past, Congress has taken pains to pass that measure by the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year. But it has been held back this year as lawmakers wrangle over a provision by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to tighten laws against torturing prisoners of war.